Tag Archives: time

#659: Manic Street Preachers – Jackie Collins Existential Question Time

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Hello there. Your favourite series is back, this time covering the Js, coming to you every other day until those songs are done. There aren’t a lot of songs I have on my phone beginning with ‘J’. It’s one of those letters that don’t really appear quite frequently at the start of a word. The songs to come are great though. At least I think so. I’ve been okay if you wanted to know. Been learning to drive and steadily getting there. That’s about it. On to the song!

‘Jackie Collins….’ was the first single from their 2009 album Journal for Plague Lovers. Well… it wasn’t really a single. No track from that album was. Nicky Wire joked that just the titles alone for some of the tracks on there didn’t really make them suitable for a commercial release. Though it was this one that made it known that there was a new album on its way. It’s one of the lighter and poppier moments on the album, save for the last minute or so where James Dean Bradfield really lets loose on the vocals accompanied by the thrashing drums and rise in tempo. Those guitar harmonics that serve as the song’s main musical hook are brilliant too. Good musical substance packed into two and a half minutes.

The lyrics were written by Richey Edwards, the band’s former guitarist and lyricist who disappeared one day in February 1995. Despite all hopes that he would some day return, he was officially presumed dead 13 years later in November of 2008. All of the lyrics on the album were written by him, if you hadn’t heard it before, and were taken from a notebook that he had left behind before his disappearance. They’re not the easiest to decipher, though that doesn’t matter really. I’ve always sensed some sort of sarcasm and satire from them though for reasons I don’t understand myself. You’d just have to listen to the song.

My iPod #462: Dananananaykroyd – Good Time

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“Good Time”, the seventh track on Dananananaykroyd’s final album There Is a Way, gets the album back to the original frenetic, loud, energetic, pumped-up style set in the preceding six after a calming interlude of environmental noises after the end of “Time Capsule“.

There is a lot to take in in the three minutes and sixteen seconds this song lasts for. It speeds up, slows down for the choruses, changes time signature at one point, there is stuttering, yelping, screaming, singing in unison, it lifts you up and smacks you around. If you don’t have a physical copy of the album (cos the lyrics are in there), there is a large chance you will have no idea what is being said to you most of the time. But that’s not a bad thing. As long as you have fun, which you will no doubt, then it’s fine. Just have a good time……. listening to it.

It was its unpredictability I think that made it one of the last songs from the album that I appreciated, but after a few more listens I got it. I’m glad.

My iPod #142: be your own PET – Bummer Time

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The song is not called ‘Blummer Time’*, the person who spelt that is dumb. It is ‘bummer’, to feel down, to be depressed, to be disappointed in something. A bummer.

For today’s post, I’m going to change things up a bit. I will take you through the song, and analyse the lyrics with you. Let’s go.

Bummertime! Bummertime!  – The song’s name is “Bummer Time”
It’s bummertime!
BUMMER!  – Why is it called “Bummer Time”? We don’t know. We’ll see soon.
(x4)

I’d think about you all week long  – She’d think about who?
My mind constantly singing your theme song  – Oh, so it’s like a character in a cartoon or something?
And did you know i looked up to you? – I’ve felt that way people on the TV at some point in my life.
I wanna be just like you! – Like a superhero kind of thing.

No one knows how it was for me – She was a true fan of this person. No one else cared.
No one knows what you meant to me – She loved this person/cartoon? A bit weird.
Everyone talks about it like they were there  – Self explanatory.
All this nostalgia but nobody cares!  – Talking is cheap. Narrator is stunned at people’s ignorance.
Everyone talks about it like they were there
All this nostalgia but nobody cares!  – So stunned, she had to repeat it twice.

I woke up early just for you – Understandable.
I waited all week long for you too – Any child does that if their favourite programme is weekly.
And there you were on my TV – Yep.
It’s like you were there just for me!  – Yeah!

Bummertime! Bummertime! – Still don’t get why there’s a bummer involved.
It’s bummertime! – It is annoying when someone doesn’t appreciate greatness.
BUMMER! – What more could possibly happen?
(x2)

When the time came I’d play along – Like Dora the Explorer? Man, I hate that shit.
I didn’t know that you’d soon be gone – Show got cancelled. Narrator gets older.
And now you’re back what can I say? – Show comes back on TV. Person she admired is older.
I can’t even look at you the same way! – He looks like crap. Narrator is disappointed.

No one knows how it was for me
No one knows what you meant to me
Everyone talks about it like they were there            SHE CARED SO MUCH FOR HIM.
All this nostalgia but nobody cares!                        ALL THOSE TIMES WERE IN VAIN.
Everyone talks about it like they were there
All this nostalgia but nobody cares!

I woke up early just for you!
I waited all week long for you too     PERSON SHE ADMIRED WAS NOTHING SPECIAL.
And there you were on my TV            HER CHILDHOOD WAS A LIE.
It’s like you were there just for me!
BUMMERTIME!                               So that’s why the song’s called “Bummer Time”.

“Bummer Time” is on be your own PET’s second album “Get Awkward”. It’s short and sweet, and totally encapsulates that feeling of disappointment when your favourite TV show returns when you’re older and you can barely look at it in the same way you did with amazement when you were a child.

Life’s a bitch.

Jamie.

09/06/2020* I’m guessing the title on the video was mispelled as ‘Blummer Time’ at the time this blog was originally uploaded. I don’t know, it’s been a while.

My iPod #23: Green Day – All the Time

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Evening all.

I downloaded ‘Nimrod’ back in 2010. That was the year that the band had their own ‘Rock Band‘ game dedicated to them. No one probably plays that game anymore, seeing as you could export all the songs into the normal Rock Band games anyway. However, it was a sight to behold Billie Joe, Mike and Tré all cartoon form, showing their change in appearances from the Dookie era, to American Idiot, and finally to 21st Century Breakdown.

Again, ‘All the Time’ isn’t probably the most memorable song that people will remember from Nimrod. There’s probably one good reason for that. The album itself was the one that began their movement from three-chord punk rock songs to songs which, I guess, carried a deeper meaning to them. They were becoming mature. Eww.

Although the song wouldn’t have found itself on Dookie, nor definitely Insomniac, ‘All the Time’ seems the closest on the album that could have been written in those recording sessions. If ‘Haushinka‘ was considered for Dookie, ‘All the Time’ certainly could have been.

The song’s overall message? Time goes fast.

That’s the song for the day. Hope you enjoyed it 🙂

Until next time.

Jamie.